The shot wasn't the difficult part of this photo, I actually got it in about 10 tries. I just dropped an ice cube into an aquarium full of water. The problem was to get the background black and to get rid of all the irregularities without spot editing. I post processed as follows:
In Photoshop I cropped the image and used NeatImage very lightly to reduce the background noise. The background still looked rather spotty with minute water drops in it. I reloaded the image in Photoshop and used a channel mixer adjustment layer, clicked monochrome and set R=50, G=10, B=40. Changed the mode to Grayscale and then back to RGB (I guess I could also have just merged visible to get the same result). I then added a Brightness/Contrast adustment layer and booted up to +25/+15. The background was still a little spotty and not completely as black as I wanted so I added a Selective Color adjusment layer and put the Blacks up to +20, which got rid of the rest of the spots and turned the background into a nice crispy black. I did a USM, resized and another light USM. I adjusted the Brightness/Contrast adjustment level to +20/+25, just in case anyone looking at the pic on a laptop will notice the spotty background. Added a border and saved for the web. If you turn the Brightness right up you can see the spottiness I am talking about. This is a good system to remove a lot of junk without spot editing. There is a bothersome bubble on the left just under the water surface which I will remove in the print version.
Statistics
Place: 1 out of 231 Avg (all users): 7.4982 Avg (commenters): 8.6905 Avg (participants): 7.4519 Avg (non-participants): 7.5429 Views since voting: 13360 Votes: 275 Comments: 92 Favorites: 43 (view)
Congratulations!
Yet, Darn you Kiwi!
I thought you were going to save one for the rest of us :) LOL
Just kidding I have not been able to submit to the challenges lately.
Greetings from the Critique Club Let me begin by saying wow. This image is a wonderful work of art. I absolutely love the way that it reads, the lighting is perfect, the contrast is wonderful, I agree that the bubble should be removed but other than that I would not change a thing. You have a real talent, and I am glad to be priveledged enough to get the inside scoop on how you created this image. (end brownnosing here)
~Rob
Congratulations on your recent winning entry. As you may or may not be aware, now that you have earned ten (10) ribbons here at DPChallenge, you are now subject to the "Give Others A Chance" Scoring Adjuster™. This means that after all of the the votes are calculated into a final score, the score of any of your future entries will be multipled by 80% (0.80) in an effort to allow others to have a shot at winning a blue ribbon. Congratulations again, and thank you for your participation here at DPC.
EddyG: LOL! You can multiply his scores with 0.8, but in this case, allow me to vote 12.5 for Kiwiness in the future, in order to get his well deserved 10s from me. :-)))
To: kiwiness
From: EddyG
Subject: Scoring of future entries
Dear kiwiness:
Congratulations on your recent winning entry. As you may or may not be aware, now that you have earned ten (10) ribbons here at DPChallenge, you are now subject to the "Give Others A Chance" Scoring Adjuster™. This means that after all of the the votes are calculated into a final score, the score of any of your future entries will be multipled by 80% (0.80) in an effort to allow others to have a shot at winning a blue ribbon. Congratulations again, and thank you for your participation here at DPC.
Just kidding Gary!! Way to go on yet another Blue for your growing collection!
Wonderful indeed. I had no doubts about this one. I wonder why I didn't guessed it was you. But I don't dare to write to much. I am taking your precious time. You are not taking pictures but writting history.
With you on this site I don't even dare to write on forums anymore. I am afraid I will write stupid things and you might read them. Isn't somehow unfair to the world to be so talented and to have such a brilliant mind in the same time?
Wow wow wow! Thanks for all your comments and votes. I'll never get tired of the feeling I get when I wake up in the morning and find I got a ribbon waiting for me. Yassir, I LIKE it :-)
Natator, I am away from home at a seminar at the moment but once I am back I'll put up a link to the original.
Any chance at all of seeing the before version of this pic, sort of post crop but pre PS work. I don't understand a lot of what you've said there and would love to try and work through it.
I've often had the same general problem, but have never been able to solve it.
Great one, hubby! I knew the moment I saw it it had to be the winner. Will see if you do well in Literalisms as well, why now shock everyone with two blue's again? LOL!
Wow, Gary, you did it again! :-) I was sure about your win, congrats on your very well deserved blue ribbon, they look amazing in your collection! I think it's time for another party. ;-)
Hey Gary...Congrats on another well deserved blue ribbon, there seems to be no end to your talent! This shot is amazing, definately the best of the bunch. Way to Go!!
Clever approach to the title, technically excellent shot too. I like this because it relies on the reflection of light, rather than the refraction that so many stopped motion water shots do. There's still somethnig not quite gripping about it for me - it may only be that I've played with such effects so much myself :-)
Lovely. So crisp and clear - a perfect balance of black and white tones. Oddly enough, I especially like the small opaque bubble in the top left. Beautiful. -10
Wonderful freeze of motion. The position of the water surface and the iceblock itself makes this a nice composition, the edges of the drop airhole in the water work well as leading lines. I can hear myself think "Plop" when I look at this.
B&W conversion works well here.
Excellent capture of the moment! I love the effect that the sinking ice-cube makes in the water, and also outside the water, the shapes of drops are fantastic. :-) B&W fits this photo very much, too, so one of my very few 10 points during this challenge! Congrats!
very nice capture....cube is not totally in focus but i doubt that is really possible...the splash is completely in focus and and your exposure is excellent..great job...9
Exceptional. The black background with the light ice is very effective indeed, and you seem to have got the timing for the splash perfect. Great stuff.
''Ice Fall'' by Shannon O'Cork
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